Vanquish Preview

Like an out of date prawn sandwich, the riskiest part of a cover-to-cover shooter is the bit in the middle. Oh sure, you’re safe when you’re squatting behind that conveniently-placed crate, or when you’re ducking behind a waist-high concrete barrier, but the bit that comes in between… well, that’s kind of scary. Out in the open, your fleshy body is as squishy and vulnerable as a newborn kitten, and a smattering of bullets is all it takes to leave you punctured, bleeding and mewling on the pavement. Yes sir, “cover” and “cover” are fine; it’s the “to” that’ll kill ya.

But in the case of Vanquish, Platinum games has come up with a new solution: get the player from A to B as quickly as possible, via the show-off method of a metal suit with jets attached to the feet. In theory, the resulting speed should be enough to save seconds off your dangerous trips between safe spots. In light of this new system, I was tempted to coin a new term: “The cover t’ cover shooter”. The thinking behind this was that our hero is so nifty that there was no time to pronounce the “O”. Unfortunately it turns out the phrase has already been trademarked by a UK developer working on a Yorkshire-themed action game. Details are currently hard to come by, but I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that it’s set in some sort of mine.

In any case, back to Vanquish. The main thing you need to know about this game, other than the fact that it already looks rather pretty, is that it’s being developed by the same studio – albeit not the same team – that produced the wonderful Bayonetta. More exciting still, the director for the project is none other than Shinji Mikami, the man who brought us God Hand, Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7. In short, this is a game being put together by people who know the action genre inside out.

This pedigree is an important thing to hang onto, because at the moment the core gameplay looks a tad familiar. Aside from the central gimmick of being able to fly into cover, none of the core ingredients seem particularly out of the ordinary. There are legions of robot foes to take down, a bullet-time-style mechanic for getting yourself out of hot water, and there’s a recharging energy system that powers all of your special abilities. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the way these features are being implemented – in fact the whole thing looks pretty tight – but since there’s nothing that immediately stands out as being revolutionary, it’ll be doubly important that everything is executed perfectly.

Vanquish casts you as Sam Gideon, a cigarette-loving scientist who presumably studied at the same place as Dr Gordon Freeman, since he displays a similar gleeful capacity for making stuff die and blow up. Despite its near-future setting, the game’s story has a Tom Clancy-style twist in that it casts Russia as the meanie villain of the piece. In fairness to the old Ruskies, their plan this time is really quite brilliant. Due to a lack of global resources, the trusty US of A has built a space station that can harvest solar power; when the dastardly Reds seize control of it, they turn it into a super weapon and promptly destroy San Francisco – a heinous act that discourages the world from ever singing that lovely Scott McKenzie song. Now Gideon must act fast to help reclaim the station before New York gets toasted (a heinous act that would discourage the world from ever singing that lovely Frank Sinatra song).

The good news for us is that Gideon’s plan for NY’s salvation involves shooting lots and lots of robots, with our nicotine-happy hero dashing between cover with the aid of his Augmented Reaction suit – the toy that enables him to zip between cover via roaring, jet-powered knee-slides. If Vanquish has a genuine claim to innovation, it’s this. Gideon shifts between barriers in seconds, eliminating the “mad dash” mechanic that has typified every cover shooter since Gears of War. When you do reach the enemy there are a number of options available, including melee attacks and the power to “push off” from a foe, propelling yourself backwards with guns a-blazing. Alternatively you might choose to engage your suit’s time-slowing capabilities, buying you the space to take down several foes at once. If you take a lot of damage in a short space of time the AR clobber will automatically trigger a bacon-saving slowdown, but the important thing to remember is that all your abilities will drain your suit’s resources. If you over exert yourself you’ll need to trigger a brief cool-off process – something that looks rather cool, but that will most likely kill you if you’re in a firefight at the time.

Another nice visual quirk is that Gideon doesn’t pick up new weapons; rather he scans them and then has his gun re-arrange its molecules, changing shape before our eyes. It’s not something that will drastically affect gameplay, but it’s another stylish flourish in a game that’s already boasting some pleasingly slick visuals. There’s a clean, sleek look to Platinum Games’ war-torn future, and on the basis of the levels shown so far, the team has a collective good eye for set-pieces. One battle finds Gideon battling flying droids aboard a monorail-like platform that circles high above an urban vista, culminating in a fight with a sub-boss who flies in to duel the player one-on-one. Elsewhere we find our hero using his powers to surge up what appears to be a sloped runway, ducking under protruding ledges as a huge foe hurls down barrels from above (an unexpected reference to Donkey Kong, perhaps?). This latter moment does an especially good job at selling the zip-to-cover mechanic: it’s fast-paced, looks tricky, and most importantly of all, it doesn’t look like it’s been ripped out of a Gears clone.

Despite the slight deja-vu vibe from some of the core elements, my hopes are riding high for Vanquish. All the ingredients are here for a decent, action-packed shooter, and given the development talent aboard it’s natural to expect something special. The demonstrators at E3 reckoned that it’ll take about 10 hours to complete the main campaign, and while there’s no multiplayer we’ve been promised plenty of replay value. There’s certainly a lot going on in the way of stat-tracking and the like, so with any luck Vanquish will echo Bayonetta in its encouragement of skilled play. If it’s half as good as Lady B’s outing then it’ll be well worth a look, but I can’t be the only one hoping that Mikami-san’s latest will make a big splash of its own.

Vanquish is due for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 this winter.